Mercury's Promise: The Wish of an Angel
by GengaJupite
Summary: Growing up was never easy for Mia, and things only got more complicated when Alex entered the picture. Spending her childhood with him, she discovered a hidden side to her cousin that no one else was able to see. Who is Alex, really? After all, a thirst for power is not always governed by the will to rule; in fact, sometimes it is quite the opposite... Oneshot. No pairings.


Holy crap, Christmas totally snuck up on me this year. I mean, I've been wrapping gifts and seeing all the houses lit up and stuff, but it never really hit me until it started snowing here yesterday night… I guess you can say that the snow is sort of why I ended up writing this.

At first I was going to make this one of the oneshots in _A Land That Isn't Ours_, but decided that it didn't really fit with the setup of those ones. This one's more serious, but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway. First attempt at a story without romance! :O

Disclaimer: I do not own Golden Sun. All rights go to its respective owners, Nintendo and Camelot.

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_**Mercury's Promise: The Wish of an Angel**_

The burning logs crackled and popped in the fireplace, releasing a pleasant warmth into the room. A kettle hung above the flames, filled with cool water that would take some time to come to a boil. The well-insulated walls of the home kept in all the heat produced at the hearth, and the soft interior furniture and décor made for a comfortable, cozy home during the winter. Juxtaposing this comfy indoor setting, a light snowstorm had begun to form outside, though it was not something that would concern anyone in this town, and it was not uncommon for the locals to go about their regular business, whether it required them to step outdoors or not.

With a blanket draped delicately over her shoulders, Mia sat peacefully in front of the fire in her home, watching the flames lick the sides of the fireplace while she waited for her water to boil. During these winter nights, the Imilian always liked to think back on the events of the past year, reminiscing over the good, the bad, the happy, and the sad. Most years, there weren't many exciting things that happened in her own life, so she often listened to stories from her two beloved children; however, this year was different.

For the first time in nearly two decades, she would enter the New Year alone.

She was not particularly saddened by this fact, though she did wish that they would stop in to visit soon. She was aware of the important mission that Rief and Nowell were currently taking part in, but it had been such a long time since they had been home.

Thinking back over these past sixteen years, she realized that her life had never been very easy. Shortly after Rief was born, her husband, a normal merchant who had managed to capture her heart following her adventure, fell victim to a shipwreck. Forced to raise two babies on her own, the healer often became sickly and fatigued, herself, but she never once cursed her fate or asked 'why me?' Instead, she always looked to the future: one in which her children would learn what it meant to work hard under any circumstances. And that was what they had both done. She could not be more proud, knowing that she had raised two of the most intelligent people that Imil had ever seen.

Taking after their mother, though, and perhaps their father too, they both held a sense of adventure, seeking to unlock the mysteries of the world with their own hands. It had been difficult to see them off, but she knew she had no right to tell them they could not leave on an adventure. After all, they had heard all about her journeys with her friends, and she did not want to be seen as a hypocrite to her own children. With tears in her eyes, she had bid them farewell with a smile and a blessing: one that would keep them safe in their travels.

As she sat there alone, though, she began to think beyond the thirty years it had been since her own adventure ended. She had never been quite the same since returning home, and it made remembering what her life was like before the adventure quite difficult. Back then, her only life experience came from things that happened in Imil. It was true that she had experienced much more than most other, regular people would have in their childhood, but she would hardly call hers extraordinary or particularly unique, though most everyone would beg to differ. Perhaps it was because she had continued to live in a similar manner upon returning home thirty years ago.

Noticing that the kettle had begun whistling, the healer lightly stepped towards the hearth and removed the kettle. Bringing it over to the counter where she had prepared her tealeaves in a teapot, she slowly poured the water in, breathing in the steam as it floated up towards her face. Exhaling slowly, she relished the feeling of the hot water particles cleansing her pores.

As she began pouring some tea into a mug, Mia's attention was stolen by a sparkle from the corner of her eye. Gently placing the teapot down, she reached over towards the source of the attention-grabber and held it in her palm.

It was nothing all that special, really. In her hand, Mia held a medium-sized stone. Bluish-grey in colour, it was very flat and had a vaguely rectangular shape. The edges were smooth, and the rock felt cool to the touch. Running her finger along the flat surface, she could feel the markings of a simple rune. It had been a long time since she was required to read runes, mainly because the ancient Mercury clan's use for them in casting spells had become obsolete from more powerful psynergy, which did not require the use of magical tools to assist in the casting of spells.

With her mug in one hand and the rune in the other, she walked back to her seat, diligently examining the stone, she wondered if she could unlock its power with one of her own spells; after all, her psynergy was no more than a derivative of the ancient magic handed down through generations of her clan. Focusing her mind to cast Ply, her eyes lit up as the marking on the stone began to glow blue.

"I remember you now," she said softly, a single tear rolling down her cheek as she recalled a repressed memory, one that she would likely have never remembered otherwise. "That was so long ago… My, how times have changed. I wonder…if things could have been different…"

_~Forty-two Years Ago~_

"Are you going out to play, Mia?" asked her father, the Great Healer of Imil. The young girl happily nodded, her little ponytail bouncing behind her head. "All right, just be careful, okay? It's probably still too warm to play on the ice."

"Okay, Daddy!" she giggled, running off towards the large sanctum doors. Her woolskin boots pattered quickly along the stone floor, echoing around the round chamber.

"Mia, hang on a moment," her mother's voice floated in from somewhere else. Stopping where she was, the five-year-old turned to see her mother approaching with a warm smile and something in her arms. "You don't want to get sick out there. Here, put on this coat. It'll keep you warm while you're playing in the snow."

"Heehee, it's all fuzzy!" Mia giggled as the fur tickled her skin.

"There you go," her mother said as she buttoned up the front of the puffy jacket. Pinching her daughter's nose playfully, she bid off the excited child, chuckling to herself as Mia pushed against the heavy doors to get out.

As quickly as her little feet could carry her, she ran across town, heading to her favourite spot on the other side of the fence. There wasn't anything especially neat about that spot, but Mia loved it all the same, acknowledging it as her special place. Once she got there, she quickly got to work, maneuvering her little, mitten-clad hands to form the beginnings of a snowman.

Though she hardly noticed, Mia was different from the other children in Imil. She had few, if any, friends that she liked to spend time with, and she rarely had chances to spare time for them anyway. When she did have a chance to get away from her private lessons, she liked to come to this spot, build a snowman, and pretend he was her friend. Being a member of the sacred Mercury clan, she had an affinity for all things water-based, but she had yet to gain much control over this power of hers. It did, however, earn her the title of best snow-sculptor amongst all the children in Imil, even if the number of children was relatively small.

Picking up a few pebbles lying near the fence, she laughed gleefully when she put a silly face onto the snowman. It didn't matter if she didn't have friends; Mia was perfectly happy the way she was.

"What are you doing?" someone said from the other side of the fence, causing her to jump and yelp in surprise. People usually left her alone while she was playing, and the voice wasn't one of her parents'.

"I…I'm building a snowman…" she said shyly, turning around to face the speaker. She was surprised to see someone she didn't recognize, as Imil rarely got visitors. What was more surprising, however, was that it was a boy that looked a lot like her, only he appeared to be around ten or eleven years old.

"Why aren't you playing with the other kids?" he asked, pointing to the other village children a short distance away.

Mia's gaze dropped and her cheeks turned a bit redder. Turning back to the snowman, she shaved some of the uneven parts off of his head. "I like playing by myself…"

The boy tilted his head in confusion, but thought little else of it. "Okay, well, I'm going to play with them. See ya!"

Only turning her head slightly to peek at him again, she watched as the boy ran off towards the other children. She wondered if he might be someone she should know; after all, it wasn't every day that she got to see someone who looked so much like her. His hair was lighter, but it was long for a boy, and it flowed down to his shoulders much the way hers would if she didn't always keep it in a ponytail. Maybe she should tell her parents. Being the leaders of the village, they would probably know if there were any travelers visiting, anyway, so it wouldn't hurt to ask them. With that in mind, she said goodbye to her snowman friend and raced off in the direction of the sanctum, leaving little footprints in the snow behind her.

Once she managed to heave open the heavy sanctum door, she saw her mother sitting on one of the stools. Shaking some of the snowflakes off her head, Mia ran over to her, eager to talk about the new boy she'd just met.

"Mommy!" she said excitedly, patting her mother on the leg.

Her mother looked down at the young girl and smiled, removing her spectacles as she placed a marker in the book she had been reading. "Yes, Mia, what is it?"

"Mommy! There was a new boy outside!" Mia explained, jumping up and down as she did so. "He was weird, and when I was building a snowman he asked me what I was doing, so I told him I was building a snowman!"

"How silly of him," her mother chuckled.

"Yeah, but that wasn't it! He looks like me! I mean, he looks like a boy me! Well, his hair is a different colour and it's shorter than mine, but…but…but he still looks like me!"

"Is that so?" her mother inquired, though she didn't seem all that surprised. "That certainly is strange. Maybe we should go tell your father about it."

"Yeah!" Mia agreed, tugging on her mother's hand as she tried to drag the woman along with her. Heading over toward the backroom, Mia jumped in surprise when her father and a strange man, who also happened to have blue hair like the three of them, opened the door first.

"Ah, back already, Mia?" her father asked, to which she simply nodded, staring at the stranger and his blue beard. "Perfect timing. There's someone I'd like to introduce you to. They've been away monitoring some of the other Mercury clan's monuments for the last few years, but they'll be living here with us from now on, or at least until another trip needs to be made."

Mia was confused by all of this. She knew that she was part of something called the Mercury clan, and that was why she and her family had blue hair and control over water, but did that mean she was related to this man here? And what were these other monuments he was talking about? Wasn't the lighthouse the only thing that the Mercury clan had to watch over? It was all too much to comprehend.

"Mia, this is your uncle. This is the first time you've met him, but he is my brother. I hope you'll get along."

"How do you do, Mia?" the moustached man greeted, stooping down to her height and giving her a toothy grin. "You know, I have a son about the same age as you. He's a few years older, but I'm sure you two can get along."

"From what she's told me, they've already met," Mia's mother chortled. "Apparently she thinks he's somewhat odd."

"Heh, well, I suppose travelling around for most of his life, Alex is bound to have some quirks."

Mia darted her head back and forth as each adult took turns speaking and laughing. She couldn't seem to keep up with everything they were saying, however, and soon became lost as to what they were actually talking about.

One thing she couldn't help wondering about, though, was where the mother was. Assuming that weird boy really was her uncle's son, wouldn't that mean he would need a mother? Why wasn't she here? Was she off somewhere else?

While she pondered these things, the sound of the heavy doors opening stole all of their attentions, and they turned to see none other than Alex the weird boy stroll in covered in snow. Mia gripped onto her mother's hand a little tighter, but she felt herself get nudged a bit forward by her father's gentle hand.

"Oh, it's the weird girl," Alex said once he was standing in front of her.

"Hey, I'm not weird, you're weird!" Mia retaliated, poking him in the chest with her finger.

"Alex, be nice," the uncle said sternly. "This is your cousin Mia. You two should try to be friends since you'll be living together from now on."

"But she's just a little kid," Alex whined, giving her a strange look. "And she's a weird little kid."

"Yeah, well, you're a weird old man!" Mia blurted, sticking out her tongue before hiding behind her mother's leg.

"Seems like they're getting along well enough," the adults laughed. All Mia could think was that she wanted to stay as far away from this weird guy as possible.

That evening, the family of five was all seated for dinner. Because the main table could only seat four, Mia and Alex were forced to sit together at a smaller table. Poking around at their food, both young Mercury adepts cast furtive glares at one another, though they both noticed each other doing so.

"Girls shouldn't eat so much," Alex sneered as Mia bit into a bread roll.

"Piggies shouldn't eat people food," Mia retorted.

"You should stop eating, then."

"No, you!"

This continued for the entire meal, with one of them sending the other a rude, albeit childish, remark and the other retorting in a similar manner. The adults hardly paid it any heed, as they were more involved in their own discussions. To them, the arguments of the children were nothing more than background noise.

"My dad is cooler than yours," Alex said, shoving a forkful of food into his mouth.

"Oh yeah?" Mia challenged, copying him with a spoonful of her own food. "My mommy is cooler than yours!"

"I don't have a mom," Alex replied flatly, not a hint of sarcasm or pain in his voice.

"Why?" Mia asked, tilting her head as she held the spoon between her lips.

Alex shrugged, seeming not to think much of the situation. "It's always just been me and my dad. I didn't even know what a mom was until we started staying with other families."

Mia didn't really understand what he meant. How could he not know what a mom was? A mom…is a mom! She's just a person, right? A lady that lives in the family. Who took care of Alex when the uncle wasn't around? Was he all by himself? Mia didn't want to think about that. It seemed awfully lonely, but she didn't want to feel bad for this weird guy. Weird guys are weird because they do weird stuff like not know what moms are! Maybe he was so weird because he didn't have a mom. That would certainly make sense.

"Mia," Mia's mother's voice called over from the table. Both kids looked over to see the adults smiling at them from their table. "Why don't you show Alex around the town? I'm sure he'd like to see it."

Mia hardened her expression a bit as she turned to look at Alex again. Why did her parents insist upon the two of them being friends? Maybe if he were a snowman, then he could be her friend. If she tried hard enough, she could probably turn him into one, but her father would be angry if she used her powers without supervision. Anyway, she wasn't even sure if she would befriend him if he did turn into a snowman. He would be less weird if he were, but only a tiny bit.

Reluctantly, the two young healers headed out of the sanctum, bundled in warm clothing to fight off the frightfully cold evening temperatures. Trudging through the ever-heightening snow, the two of them continued along the pathway, walking toward the market-like section of town, though most of the shops were closed at this time.

"Hey," Alex said after a while of silence, "what's it like to have a mom?"

Mia kept her chin and mouth buried behind her scarf, trying to ponder how she might go about answering such a question. Having a mom…was like… Well, it wasn't really like anything. Having a mom just was. Shouldn't that be enough? What was a mom, anyway? She couldn't really answer a question as vague as that.

"Like having two daddies, except that one of them is a girl," Mia answered, though she wasn't sure that that made enough sense. In any case, that was the best she had to offer.

"So…she's the same as a dad?"

"Um…kind of…but she's different too."

They wouldn't be able to continue a conversation like that for much longer. At the rate they were going at, both would end up confusing the other. Despite Alex being old enough to comprehend a couple of life's complexities, even he would eventually get thrown off by a five-year-old's explanation of what having a second parent was like. It wasn't as though Mia knew what it was like to live with only one parent, either.

"Can we go to that island?" Alex asked, changing the subject as he pointed to the island with the tree in the middle of the frozen river.

"We're not supposed to," Mia explained, though Alex had already started making his way over to the staircase that would lead to the riverbank. "Daddy said the ice is still too thin!"

"Heh, I'll be fine," Alex said, gingerly placing a foot on the frozen surface. "I can use my Mercury powers to keep me safe!"

Mia hid her eyes behind her hands, but peeked out to watch as her cousin carefully walked out onto the frozen surface. She watched in amazement as he finally managed to make it across and step next to the ladder on the island. Maybe he wasn't so weird, after all. What he did just then was actually pretty cool.

Wanting to prove that she was cool, too, Mia bravely stepped onto the ice herself. The first few steps were a little shaky, but she was okay, and the ice seemed to be holding up. She turned her nose up and smirked as she got closer and closer to Alex, but the sound of something crunching caused her to stop. Before she could even realize what was happening, the ice beneath her collapsed and Mia fell straight into the water.

Having always lived in this village, Mia never had a chance to learn how to swim, given that the water was always too frigid. Spluttering and attempting to grab onto one of the broken pieces of ice, she found that grasping the frozen blocks wasn't helping at all. The water was so cold, and she didn't know what she could do. Every time she managed to get her head above water, she would gulp in a mouthful of icy water, chilling her insides as well. Everything was going dark, and she could hardly even feel her body anymore.

Just when it all seemed over, though, she felt herself being carefully lifted out of the water. Coughing up a lungful of water, she looked to see two watery hands protruding from the river and lifting her onto the edge. As they gently placed her down, she looked to see Alex glowing a dim blue colour over by the island. The colour faded from him as the hands retracted into the water, and he quickly made his way over to her.

"Dummy!" he said, bopping her on the head. "You can't just follow me like that."

Huddled in a ball, Mia shivered as she looked up at his concerned face. She wasn't sure why exactly – perhaps because of how cold she was – but she suddenly felt like crying. Allowing her tears to burst forth, she shivered and gripped onto Alex, crying out for her mother. With no other option, Alex lifted the bawling girl onto his back, soaking himself in the process of carrying her back home.

Maybe Alex was weird, but he could be kind when he wanted to be. Maybe, just maybe, she could give him a chance…

_~Forty-one Years Ago~_

"I don't want to go this high up!" Mia cried, gripping onto a rock that jutted out of the side of the small cliff.

"Heh, would you rather climb back down? The easiest way to get back down from here is to use the ice slide at the top," Alex chuckled, holding his hand out for Mia to take. "C'mon, this is the last ledge before we get there."

"O-Okay," Mia said shakily, taking his hand so that he could pull her up. The thought of climbing back down scared her much more than climbing up this last little bit did. How Alex had managed to convince her to climb up the wall next to the waterfall, she would never know.

When the two finally made it to the top, they both fell back onto their bottoms and breathed heavily as they looked out over Imil. From all the way up here, everything looked so small. Turning to her cousin, Mia began to laugh, falling back into the snow as she tried to catch her breath.

"Your dad would probably get mad if he found out I took you up here," Alex said, tossing some snow over the edge. "Promise you won't tell him, okay?"

"I promise," Mia agreed, holding her pinky outwards so that they could interlock them.

She wasn't quite sure how, but after that night when Alex saved her from drowning, the two of them had become the closest two people in the entire village. Of course, it seemed more like she was just tagging along with whatever Alex did while he reluctantly agreed, but all the parents and adults in town knew that he liked spending time with her, despite being almost twice her age. Perhaps he was making up for not having a mother by treating Mia like a little sister. Either way, she didn't mind at all.

After sliding down the exhilarating ice slide that Alex had made her come all that way up for, the two of them began heading back towards the sanctum. For the past week or so, Alex's father had been the one conducting their studies while Mia's parents were gone for a few days, and he was much more lenient about hands-on training and taking breaks. Initially, this surprised Mia, given that her uncle looked more intimidating than her father, but she had grown used to it. It may have been simply because she was more accustomed to having her father teach her, so she only perceived her uncle as being more intimidating, but he was truly a very nice man. Interestingly enough, Alex had taken more of a liking to her father, and even called himself his apprentice.

As they entered the sanctum, the two of them were met with an odd sight. Alex's father stood near the altar with his hand over his eyes and a person that neither of them recognized beside him. She looked rather ordinary, and they could tell that she was not one of their clan. Mia's first thought was that this person was possibly Alex's mother, but upon closer inspection, the woman looked nothing like him. As they got closer, both adults' expressions dropped considerably more than they already were.

"Mia…" her uncle said, stooping to her height and putting his hands on her shoulders. He looked very sad to her, but she had never seen a sad grown-up before. Why was he sad?

"Are you okay, Uncle?" she asked, not understanding the reason for his glossy eyes. From her peripheral vision, she watched the unknown woman lead Alex into the backroom. "Who is that lady?"

His face began to turn very red as droplets began forming at the corners of his eyes. "Mia, she…she is a messenger… She and a few others were travelling with your mother and father…" He took a moment to take a few deep breaths and collect himself before continuing. "Mia, sweetheart, I'm going to take care of you from now on."

She didn't understand. Hadn't he already been taking care of her? Why did he need to tell her that? He and her parents had been the ones watching over her and Alex for the past year, so it was the same, wasn't it? Why was he saying that? More importantly, why was he crying? Adults weren't supposed to cry, especially not boys!

"Mia, do you understand?" he asked, to which she shook her head, her ponytail flicking back and forth as she did so. Holding his fist up to his mouth for a moment, she watched as he tried not to cry again. "Your parents… They aren't… They're gone, Mia."

Again, she didn't understand what he was saying. Of course they were gone; that's why he was taking care of them right now. "I know," she said plainly. "But they're coming back soon."

Something about that made her uncle even sadder, but she was still having trouble understanding why he was so upset in the first place. She couldn't ask anyone, as it was only the two of them right now. All she could do was wait until he was able to explain in a way that she might understand.

"No, Mia, they…they won't be coming back."

"Huh? But why? Did they get stuck somewhere? If they can't leave, we can go to them, right?"

"We can't, Mia. They're in a place that…that we can't reach."

This was all so confusing. If her parents had gotten there, shouldn't that mean that they would be able to get there too? Even if they couldn't get out of that place, they could all be together there, couldn't they? Why was her uncle being so confusing? She didn't like the way he was talking, not one bit.

"Mia, I promise that I'm going to take good care of you, okay?" he continued. "I know it would make them very happy if I did. Will you let me do that? We'll keep living here and everything."

"Okay, Uncle," she said, still not understanding the situation. "We should go find them later, though, okay?"

She watched as the tears began pouring down his cheeks like waterfalls. Pulling her into an unreturned embrace, he whispered a simple "Yeah, we will someday" into her ear.

She was sure that he was just saying weird things. After all, there was no way they could be impossible to find. Maybe they just got lost. Or maybe they were playing a game! It could be like hide and seek, and she would have to go find them. That's right, she would go on an adventure and find them so that everyone could be happy again. Then the uncle wouldn't have to be sad!

It took a while, but after a month or so of explaining and no word from her parents, Mia finally came to understand that they were not playing a game. She finally understood that her uncle was right when he said she wouldn't be able to reach them no matter how hard she tried. She finally understood why they wouldn't be taking care of her any more.

At the mere age of six, she finally understood why she would never see them again…

_~Forty Years Ago~_

It was a day of celebration. The entire village of Imil rejoiced and held a grand festival to mark the occasion. Streamers and confetti filled the streets as people danced merrily, laughing in their joy and gaiety. Music filled the air, and there was hardly an unhappy soul to be seen.

A new member of the Mercury clan had been born.

Thought to be an impossible feat without the presence of a parent from the Mercury clan, a child blessed with the power of Mercury had somehow come into being. Alex and his father had no way of explaining such a phenomenon, as there were only three remaining in the village at the time. Still, they explained the extreme gift that the child had been blessed with, and allowed the town to bask in its merriment over the newborn baby Justin.

However, this was not a day of celebration for young Mia. Alone in her room, she sat in the darkness, blocking out any light from creeping through the blinds of her window. As she sat huddled on her bed with her knees to her chest, she was forced to cover her ears at the sounds of the happy people. Why were they all so happy? Why did they have to celebrate on _today_ of all days?

Didn't it mean anything that her parents had been declared dead on this day one year ago?

The more she thought of how happy everyone else was, the more she whimpered and cried. It wasn't fair. She never even got to see them before it happened. They had already been gone for a few days, only for her to receive the news much later from a random woman she had never even seen before. Sure, everyone had given her their condolences in the beginning, but it seemed almost as though they had all but forgotten their town's leaders.

"Mommy…Daddy…come back…please…" she whispered, gripping onto the pendant on her necklace.

"Mia?" a boy's voice sounded from the other side of her door. "Mia, are you there?"

She didn't answer. She didn't want to see anyone right now, even if it was Alex. No matter how hard he tried to comfort her, nothing would work. After all, Alex didn't know what it was like to lose his entire world in an instant. He had never known his mother, so it wasn't like he had the pain of losing her. He could only attempt to sympathize with his distraught cousin, but truly empathizing with her was all but possible at this point. She didn't want to see him, nor anyone who did not know the pain of losing their family.

The door creaked open as Alex peeked his head into the room. Seeming to notice Mia huddled in the corner, he quietly came in and opened the blinds just enough to provide some visibility in the room.

"Hey," he soothed, sitting next to her on the bed. "Do you want me to bring you something?"

A sob bubbled up from Mia's throat, and she had to rub her eyes just to see clearly. "Bring Mommy and Daddy."

They had done this many times before, but it never got easier on either of them. Mia tried to feel comforted by Alex's arm wrapped around her, but the action only reminded her that this thirteen-year-old boy could not hold her the same way her mother or father once did. He may love her like a brother would his sister, but it could never match the strength of her parents' dedication. Anything he tried to comfort her with only proved to make her cry harder. She hated him, but that didn't mean she wanted him to stop caring. She only wanted him to understand.

"You know, Mia," he spoke softly, rubbing her arm gently, "I can teach you a trick to control your tears."

Mia sniffled, looking up to him with wide, watery eyes. She knew that halting her tears wouldn't make her feel less sad, but at least she wouldn't spend all her days crying.

"C-Can…can you really do it?" she squeaked, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her robe.

"Sure," he said with a smile, letting go of her so he could stand up. "I mean, we're the Mercury clan, right? We have complete control over water, and tears are no exception to that rule."

Mia's lip quivered, and she had no words for him, so she simply nodded and watched as Alex smiled and closed his eyes. Just as he had on the day he saved her from drowning and whenever they practiced their powers with Uncle, Alex began to glow a dim blue colour. As she watched him, his eyes began to glow a slightly brighter blue, and she could feel her vision becoming clearer as the tears were seemingly swallowed back into her tear ducts. After another moment or so, the only remaining signs that she had been crying were the puffiness and redness of her eyes.

"See? All you have to do is focus Ply on your eyes. I don't know why, but it must treat tears as a wound of some sort. Ply is only supposed to heal physical injuries and help with illnesses, but there are some little, lesser-known tricks to it."

Mia couldn't deny that she was impressed by the trick. She definitely still felt sad, but it was as though the tears physically couldn't leave her eyes. "Wow," she said in astonishment, though she quickly curled back into a ball.

"Someday, Mia," Alex said proudly, pointing a thumb to himself, "I'm going to become the best member of our clan that the world has ever seen. I'm going to save everyone in the world with my amazing powers, and I'll make sure that no one ever has to be sad again!"

A sad smile formed on her face, though it was hidden behind her knees. He certainly was ambitious, but after seeing some of the things he could do at his age, she believed he could strive for something amazing. Perhaps saving the world was a bit farfetched, but she wanted to believe that if anyone could do it, then it would be Alex. He had the drive; now he just needed the opportunity.

"Master Alex! Miss Mia!" a frantic voice called from the main area of the sanctum. Both of the young healers were quick to leave the living section to see what was wrong, momentarily forgetting their problems while they rushed to see the cause for the panic.

"What's wrong?" Alex said when the two of them burst through the door. A rather ordinary-looking man stood there with his cap in his hands, looking at them with wide eyes.

"I-It's…it's the Great Healer… He…he suddenly collapsed while he was tending to a villager outside!"

With barely a moment's reaction time, Alex had already rushed towards the doors, ready and willing to pour all of his power into his father if it meant saving him. Mia began to shake in fear upon hearing the news. She had already lost so much, she couldn't lose yet another family member. Was this her fault? Was she to blame for all this misfortune? When she wished that Alex would only understand her pain, she didn't mean she wanted her uncle to suddenly die; she only wanted for him to relate to her in a way that was more than him simply sympathizing.

Within a few minutes, Alex was dragging his father into the sanctum with an entourage of worried villagers following behind. Quickly laying him on the altar, Alex began chanting incantations he had heard his father use when treating the sickly. Mia watched fearfully as Alex's hands began to glow white while the rest of him glowed blue. He was mixing the power of the Mercury clan with regular healing magic to strengthen the effects on his father. After a while, the toll it was taking on Alex began to show, as beads of sweat began to pour down his face. Every so often, Mia noticed his eyes glow blue, and she knew that he was truly doing all that he could to save his father.

With nearly half the village crowded inside to watch as Alex tried to heal his father, people began to whisper prayers as the first hour went by.

"That's enough, son," some of the adults would say, attempting to pull him away, but Alex aggressively shrugged them all off, the blue glow in his eyes staying longer and longer.

Another ten or twenty minutes passed, but the only sign of improvement was the slight rising and falling of his chest, indicating that he was still breathing, but not very well. As Alex began to drop to his knees from all the power he'd exhausted, Mia finally ran up to him and did the only thing she could think of: wrap her arms around him and plead.

"No more, Alex! Stop, please! No more! No more…"

She allowed her tears to flow freely as she tightly gripped her cousin, not bothering to hide them with Ply. Watching the glow from Alex fade, she saw something she didn't expect right then: tears falling from Alex's eyes. The young teen began to shake as he caved under the pressure.

"I'm so weak," he muttered through his sobs. "Damn it all, I'm so weak!"

Some of the more concerned townspeople helped the two sobbing children stand up, and a few of them brought Alex into the back living area so he could rest for a while. Mia, however, chose to stay by her uncle's side. Draping a blanket over his frail body, she stayed there with him even after all the concerned villagers began to leave.

"Those poor children," she overheard an elderly woman saying as she exited with her husband. "Young Miss Mia has already lost her parents, and now she may end up losing the last guardian she has in this world. Mercury, have mercy on your sweet children. They've experienced enough pain as it is."

With that, the hall was empty, leaving an eerie silence as Mia sat with her sickly uncle. Suddenly beginning to feel very drowsy, she laid her head down only for a second, making sure to keep her head close to her guardian.

When she awoke, the windows around the sanctum indicated it was still nighttime, so she realized she must not have slept for very long. However, to her surprise, she found her uncle's kindly face smiling at her, though he seemed very pale compared to before.

"Mia," he croaked out, reaching a hand up to brush against her cheek. "Are you all right?"

She nodded, taking his wrinkly hand in both of her own. "I'm okay, Uncle."

"Good, good," he coughed, stroking her hands with his thumb. "I'm glad you're okay. How about Alex?"

Mia glanced over towards the backdoor leading to the living area. With a sad expression on her face, she turned back towards her uncle before speaking. "I don't know. He carried you in here and tried to heal you for a long, long time. Then he got too tired and I saw him cry for the first time. I think the people put him to bed."

"Ah, I was afraid of that," he coughed again, this time more aggressively than the last. "To be honest, I didn't want to worry the two of you. The reason Alex and I came back to Imil had nothing to do with our studies being complete. I didn't tell him this, Mia, but I think it's only fair that I let you know at least.

"While Alex and I were travelling the world, I came down with a foreign illness; one of which has not been seen by many in this world. Knowing that, there was no one I could turn to but my dear brother, your father, the most powerful Great Healer in all of Weyard. However, when I got here, even he explained that there was nothing he could do. The most he could do was delay the effects for an indefinite amount of time, but it would only slow the process. I decided that it would be better to delay the effects and train Alex to his full potential than waste away, only for him to follow soon after. That's why we came here.

"Your father gave me a special type of medicine while I was here, so I started taking that. I wasn't able to take it with me, though, since he said it would only work for a short period after being prepared, and the materials I needed weren't very transportable. Because of that, your parents decided that it would be beneficial for them to complete my studies for me while I stayed here to train you and Alex.

"Unfortunately, it was soon after that your parents met their untimely demises, and I knew that it would only be a matter of time before I, too, would follow in their footsteps. You see, they were only meant to be gone for a couple of weeks at most, so your father only prepared enough medicine for that amount of time. When I heard what had happened to them, I panicked and attempted to replicate the medicine, though I'm sure you know that I am nowhere near as proficient at these things as your father was. Alas, my time seems to have finally reached its end. I can feel the life draining from me just lying here."

Mia watched helplessly as her uncle coughed up some blood into his beard, the light blue colour being contrasted by the thick, crimson droplets. She began to cast Ply into him, but she could feel him halting her power with what little strength he had left.

"It's all right, Mia," he said, shaking his head at her with a smile. "I am too far gone at this point to be saved. My only regret in this life is that I couldn't be a better father to Alex and guardian to you. You both have experienced so much hardship, and I cannot do anything now. I am sorry that I will only add to your pain and sorrow."

Mia tried her best to focus Ply on her eyes, but she was only able to concentrate enough for one eye, allowing the other to spill tears onto the stone altar without restraint. This wasn't what she wanted. She was going to lose everyone she loved if this kept up. She wasn't even ten years old yet! He couldn't leave her now, he just couldn't!

"Uncle, don't go!" she cried, gripping even tighter onto his hand. "What…what are we going to do if you leave?! Who's going to take care of us?!"

She couldn't understand why he was smiling at a time like this, but the bearded man only smiled calmly at her as he closed his eyes in an almost peaceful manner. "You're such a big girl, Mia. I'm proud to have such a wonderful niece like you. I'll be sure to tell your parents just how mature you're becoming. I'll finally be able to reach them now, and I want you to remember that we're always watching over you. Please apologize to Alex for me."

"Uncle, no!"

"Goodbye, my sweet Mia."

With his last breath, her uncle's hand went limp in her hand, and Mia stared at his smiling face with a single teary eye.

He had joined her parents in the afterlife, a place she could never reach no matter how hard she tried…

_~Thirty-eight Years Ago~_

Mia sat alone in the kitchen, playing with a few stray water blobs she'd taken from the sink. She manipulated them to do a little dance in front of her, spinning around and forming funny little shapes in the air in front of her. Descending them into a glass by her hand, she glanced across the table at the cold food she'd set out for Alex.

She didn't know why she bothered setting meals out for him anymore, or why she bothered to wait for him to get home. Ever since that horrible day two years ago, Alex had changed completely. He was antisocial, apathetic towards everything, and hardly ever acknowledged her existence. The only time she got to see him was when he was standing at the altar, but he would usually send her off to do some training. When she did see him, he was always poring over old books, texts, and some kind of runes.

The door to the sanctum opened, and she stood as his footsteps entered the kitchen area. Just as always, his robes were disheveled, his hair was messy, and he looked like he hadn't slept in weeks.

"Welcome back," Mia said quietly, just as she always did. He made a sort of grunting noise to acknowledge her, but otherwise said nothing, simply getting himself a glass of water. "I…I made you some food."

"Not hungry," he grunted, brushing past her to go up to his room.

Sighing, Mia took the plate of food and went out the back of the sanctum. This had become rather routine for her: placing Alex's uneaten food on the back porch so that the local strays would have something to eat. Really, after two years of the same thing, she was more worried about Alex's eating habits than the animals'. He had to be eating, but it couldn't be very much, and she definitely never saw him doing so.

Being only nine years old, Mia was surprisingly mature for her age. Because Alex had more or less given up on his duty as a mentor (considering he had become the town's Great Healer at the unheard of age of thirteen), Mia had taken over the duty of teaching baby Justin what it meant to be a member of the Mercury clan. She hoped that he would never have to experience the pain that the two of them had, and she watched over him as if she were his own mother, despite the fact that his real mother would come to drop him off and pick him up each day. Perhaps it was because neither of his parents were of the Mercury clan, but Mia had always been perplexed by Justin's lack of blue hair, which had been a signature quality of those blessed by Mercury.

Regardless, this mattered not, as she was determined to make sure he did not experience pain the way she and Alex were forced to.

The following day, Mia was surprised to find Alex waiting at the bottom of the steps for her as she made her way into the main living area.

"Morning," she greeted, though he was not so kindly as she was.

"There's something we have to take care of," he said flatly, keeping his eyes down rather than making eye contact. "You've probably noticed that Justin's mother is far along in her second pregnancy. I've been taking note of her actions, and it seems as thought the baby could be coming today."

Mia gasped in surprise. She realized that Justin's mother was pregnant again, but she hadn't taken much notice. She had heard that she divorced her old husband soon after Justin was born, so this child would only be a half-sibling of his. What she wasn't prepared for, however, was her cousin's next statement.

"You may not know, but the mother has come down with a serious flu, and the baby's father walked out on her a short while ago. Chances are, she won't make it through the birth unless both of us are there to assist. Because my healing powers are stronger than yours, I need you to deliver the child while I keep her vitals in check. Understand?"

"Y-Yes," Mia answered quickly.

"Then we'll be leaving for their home in thirty minutes. Do what you need to right now."

…

Mia carefully snipped the newborn's umbilical cord and was quick to wrap the baby girl in a towel. This was the first child she'd had to deliver, but everything seemed to go over smoothly on her end. Happily walking over to the mother and Alex, her face dropped when she saw just how much energy Alex was expending on her.

"Don't quit on us now!" Alex growled, pouring huge amounts of his power into her. "Come on, hang on!"

"I'm…sorry…" the mother panted, her colour beginning to fade despite Alex's best efforts. Turning to look at Mia and the newborn, the mother smiled and managed to utter one last thing before passing on. "Meg…an…"

With that, her arm fell from Alex's grip, and the two healers were left alone with the two newly orphaned infants. Neither said a word, but Mia could feel her heart drop into her stomach as she stared at the woman lying there so peacefully. Mia had lived through this experience once already; she hoped that she would never have to experience death firsthand ever again. Because of all these untimely deaths, she and Alex had become orphans, and now they were to care for these two orphaned children themselves.

Without warning, Alex suddenly strode up to Mia and snatched the screaming baby away from her. Staring intensely at her for a few moments, he shoved the girl back into Mia's arms and began to leave the building.

"She is one of us," he said as he made his way out.

Mia stood there with a shocked expression on her face as she tried to calm the baby girl down. Justin was leaning against her leg and pulling at the bottom of her robes, but she paid it little attention.

Megan, the second miracle child born into the quiet village of Imil. It was certainly something worth celebrating over, but no festivities would be held on that day. The birth of a miracle meant little when coupled with the death of another. It was all too much, and Mia began to fear for what would happen to them now that they would be forced into a life of childcare.

_~Thirty-three Years Ago~_

"Mia, I'm scared!" Justin cried, gripping onto her leg for comfort.

"Me too!" Megan said, gripping onto her other leg.

The fourteen-year-old Mia gently tousled their hair as the four members of the Mercury clan watched the calamity from afar. Mt. Aleph, seemingly out of nowhere, suddenly erupted, sending a deafening roar and earth-shattering pulse across the land. They looked on as large stones rained down upon the land, creating sparkling explosions upon impact with the ground. She had no idea what those things were, but they looked dangerous, and she was simply glad that none seemed to be landing around Imil.

"It's begun," Alex muttered cryptically.

Mia looked to her twenty-year-old cousin, but he did not acknowledge her glance. Instead, he quickly turned around and marched up to his room. Something was different about him today. He did not seem angry, depressed, or even all that antisocial. In fact, he seemed full of energy, and though she should have felt happy for him, she was more worried than anything. Leaving the two children by the window to continue watching the eruption, she hastily followed after Alex.

Without knocking, she entered his room, something she had never had the gall to do in the past. She was not surprised to see endless piles of scrolls, texts, and all manner of academic junk scattered all about his room. He had been like this for the past seven years, so it only made sense that his sleeping quarters would look this way.

"What are you doing?" she questioned when she saw him stuffing random pouches and scrolls into a bag. He turned to look at her for a moment, but went back to his packing soon after.

"I'm leaving," he stated flatly, collecting more things from around the room.

"Excuse me?" she retorted, placing her hands on her hips as she stood in the doorway. "Sorry to call you out on this, but did you forget that we're currently raising two children, not to mention that you're the leader of this village?"

"Not anymore. Look, I don't have time to explain. I've read every script and document your father has ever written, along with a great number of other things. I knew this day was coming, and I just had to wait until the great calamity occurred. Don't try to stop me, Mia. You know you can't."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" she argued. She had very little time to keep up with her own studies nowadays, substituting it for her time spent taking care of Justin and Megan; however, she doubted that whatever he was talking about had anything to do with the regular studying material. "Alex, you can't just leave! I can't handle healing duties and childcare!"

"Yes you can. I know you have it in you," he said, rifling through a stack of runes. "I know because…

"Because why?"

"…Because you're stronger than I'll ever be…"

There was a tense pause while Mia tried to process his words. Stronger than he could ever be? If he hadn't been there to support her, she probably would have lost herself to despair when she was only six years old!

"…How can you say that?" she exhaled. "Alex…please… You're the only family I have left… I know things have been hard, but…but I can't do this alone… You're…you're my brother, and I need you…"

Alex stopped upon hearing those words and looked over towards his cousin. She kept her gaze on the ground, but she could see that her words had had some sort of impact on him. As her eyes began to water, she told herself that this wasn't the time to cry. She had to be firm with her resolve, and crying would only show him that she was still immature. Casting Ply on her eyes, she did her best to look up at him.

He stared back at her with a blank expression, though she thought he looked slightly hurt. Mia watched as he turned around to go through his pile of runes again before picking one up and handing it to her. Confused, Mia accepted the rune from him, but she had no idea of its significance. Since her studies had come to halt, she could only read a handful of Mercurian runes, and this was definitely not one of the simpler ones. Looking back up at her cousin with glowing blue eyes, she could see him with a small smile upon his face.

"Mia, I told you something years ago, didn't I?" he said with a voice much more soothing, like it had been before his father's passing. "I told you that I would become the greatest member of the Mercury clan that this world has ever seen. I wanted to save the world and make sure that no one was ever sad again."

She snickered sadly, holding the rune closer to her chest. "You did, but we were just kids. You were only saying that because you wanted me to feel better."

"Maybe so," he chuckled along as well, "but I truly want to make this world a better place. The only way I can do that is by using all the knowledge I've acquired and putting it to use. I will become the most powerful person in the world, and with that power, I'll make sure that the world moves into an age of peace and prosperity!"

"You sound like a little kid," Mia sighed, though a smile stayed on her face. "But what am I supposed to do here without you? I know you'll just say that you didn't help out much, but you did more than you probably think you did. I know you helped out with Justin when I had to stay with Megan, and I know you went to put her back to sleep on the nights when I had already woken up countless times to do so."

"I just did what I had to," he said sheepishly, slinging the pack over his shoulder. "Mia, listen. They aren't babies anymore. I know they aren't grown-ups, and they probably won't mature as fast as we were forced to, but I know you'll raise them properly. Trust me, you basically raised me throughout my teenage years, and you hadn't even hit double digits in the beginning."

She was caught completely off-guard when Alex stepped before her and wrapped his arms in a warm embrace, encircling her small frame in his arms. He hadn't held her like this since her parents died, and she honestly missed the feeling. She was sure that her eyes were glowing a bright blue at that point, but she did not want to cry, not now.

"Thank you, Mia. You showed me what it was like to have a mother. I promise that when I've become powerful enough, the first thing I'm going to do is return to you and grant any wish you want. I'm going to save the world, not just for me, but for you. I have something, no, some_one_ worth saving, after all."

With that, Alex released her from his grip and hurried down the steps, tousling the children's hair as they watched from the bottom of the stairs. Just before he stepped out the door to leave indefinitely, Alex turned to look over his shoulder one last time as he called to Mia.

"By the way, that rune… It's for strength. If you cast Ply on it, you're guaranteed to overcome any hardships. I told you that Ply has its secrets, you just have to know where to look."

And with that, Alex was gone. Mia thought she would be sad when this day finally came, but instead she was happy. She was happy because he promised to return home one day. One day, they could be a family again, and that would be her wish for when he returned. Looking down at the rune, she cast Ply, and watched the markings begin to glow a dim blue colour.

"Overcome any hardships… I'm scared, but…but I think that I'm finally ready. My new life starts today. Mom, Dad, Uncle, Alex, I promise I won't disappoint you."

_~Present Day~_

With the rune in one hand and her tea in the other, Mia carefully took a sip of the hot beverage, her eyes glowing blue as she did so. She had not thought back on those days in such a long time, and it was almost as if it was all a strange dream. She remembered the feeling of betrayal when she saw him again three years later, how the man she loved as a brother went against everything he had promised her and attempted to destroy the world, or so she thought at the time. It was hard to forgive him, and even when she found out that he was attempting to take the power of the Golden Sun for himself, he had changed so much from the man she once knew that she couldn't believe he was doing it for anything other than selfish gain. It was hard to cope with, but Alex was a changed man, and he must have paid with his life, for no word on him had been heard in all this time since Mt. Aleph sank into the ground. Thus, the story was passed to her children that he was a traitorous heretic who got his just desserts when he attempted to overthrow the world for his own gain.

Still, she could not accept that he had just thrown it all away and died for selfish reasons now that she looked back upon it. Alex had promised to save the world by becoming the most powerful adept in all of Weyard, though they had not known what an adept was back then, nor that their powers were linked to an even greater power known as psynergy. None of that should have changed his goal, though, and even though his personality had changed beyond her recognition, Mia still held a glimmer of hope for him. Despite his underhanded way of doing things, his goal of becoming the most powerful person in the world had not changed, and that kept her feeling optimistic, regardless of all the wrongs he had done.

"He won't die from something like that," she mused, taking another sip of her tea. "He can't; after all, he promised to grant my wish, and I won't forgive him if he doesn't follow through."

Unbeknownst to Mia or the other villagers of Imil, a lone figure stood at the top of the frozen waterfall, watching the town he once called home in the miniscule snowstorm it was experiencing. With his unyielding abilities, he could look into the lives of the two children he once helped raise. It was hard to believe that the two of them looked older than both him and his cousin, but it was understandable given the circumstances. She really had raised them well, and he was happy to see them grown up with families of their own. Moving his all-seeing gaze to the sanctum, a smile tugged at the edges of his lips, and he felt something he had not experienced in what felt like a lifetime: a warmth in his heart.

"Mia," he spoke aloud. "I know you cannot see me, but I am standing right here where we had our last great moment together. Before all the pain and suffering, we climbed this waterfall together. I have never forgotten my promise to you, and as soon as I have dealt with the new threat to the world, I will return so that we can be a family again. It will be my way of truly thanking you for loving someone as despicable as me."

Turning around and preparing to warp, he smiled and held up a rune identical to the one he had given Mia thirty-three years ago. He watched the marking glow blue as he cast a spell that he had not used since the day he left home for the first time. Feeling the strength brim within him, he looked over his shoulder just as he had on that day and called out to Mia.

"After all, that was your wish, and it has always been mine too."

* * *

Heh, these oneshots just keep getting longer and longer every time I write them. I mean, I easily could have turned this into a multi-chap, but I've already made too many promises to this fanbase about when my next multi-chap will be up, so I don't want to throw people off. Consider this my little Christmas treat to you, since I probably won't be posting anything on actual Christmas. Other than the semi-rushed/sloppy ending, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, considering I literally thought of it, sat down, and typed it all in one sitting :P

Oh yeah, I usually end oneshots with _The End_, but because the games still have to continue, I felt like saying that at the end of this would seem wrong. That doesn't mean I plan on writing anything post-DD, so don't get excited about something like that happening. My next GS story is gonna be a threeshot softship for those of you who are wondering, and after that I'll be getting right into that _What is Happiness? _parallel that I've been hyping up for a year despite the fact that I don't even know if it'll be good…

Anyway, I hope everybody has a Merry/Happy Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kick-ass Kwanza, and whatever else sort of celebrations you might be partaking in over the holidays. See you in the New Year! (Like, legit, I'll have something posted then :))

_-GengaJupite_


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